Distribution

Giving application developers access to the set of broadly reusable REST controllers and resources produced through our aforementioned best practices, requires revisiting aspects of discoverability and consumable production. Simply, unless your services are uncomplicated like the ubiquitous weather example, a WADL is not enough. Moreover, syntactic definition does not equate to semantic understanding. Potential consumers need ready access to supporting artifacts (e.g., usage guide, sample client code) to make resources consumable.

A resource should be discoverable. Wrapping a resource with metadata allows the user to search for other practical resources using varying techniques, and user interfaces. Additionally, IT organizations efficiently deliver resources to potential consumers when well-designed. Minimally, support for mobile, browsers, and deep IDE integration enable users with varying roles to discover the right resources. For example, a business architect may comfortably use domain terminology searches within a browser. However, a designer or developer may prefer a visual search mechanism within a preferred IDE.